TRAI consults cable industry on consumer issues

New Delhi: TRAI has sought the opinion of
broadcasting and cable industry on issues like tariffs and
payment mode for cable services, revenue sharing between
stakeholders and addressing consumer issues to ensure smooth
transition of the cable sector from analog to digital era.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) officials
said there are in all seven important areas where mechanisms
need to be put in place before televisions across India enter
the digital age.

"In order to facilitate this transformation, TRAI in
consultation with the stakeholders has identified certain key
issues that need to be determined," a TRAI official said.
The key areas which TRAI has identified include
Composition and Tariff of Basic Service Tier (BST), the
Retail Tariff structure, Prepaid billing systems and
interconnection issues.

Apart from these models of revenue sharing between
(Multiple system Operators) MSOs and Local Cable Operators
(LCOs), the issues pertaining to Quality of Service Standards
for the consumers` benefit and setting up a mechanism for the
redressal of consumer complaints.

Officials said that in a consultation paper, TRAI
released today, all these seven areas have been dealt with
broadly but a final roadmap for digitization could only be
prepared after proper consultations are held with all the
stake holders.

TRAI officials said the Broadcasting industry with about
150 million TV households is set for a major transformation.
The analog nature of the cable TV service, which caters to
around 94 million households, has been the roadblock in
exploiting the full potential of the sector in the era of
convergence.
Parliament has in the winter session passed the Bill to
amend the Cable TV Act paving the way for complete
digitization in the country by 2014.